Link Roundup 10/21/2013

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In the US, 15% of youth 16 through 24 aren’t employed or in school.  Needless to say that’s got some unpleasant economic and cultural repercussions down the road, and may be something we’re revisiting (and fixing) in the next decade.  I suppose at least we’re still having sex.

Good for Netflix?  They’ve surpassed HBO’s viewer base.  Bad?  The binge viewing they created may work against them.  The first is obvious and should give people pause (and get you sending resumes).  The second is an issue because it messes with earning reports and often involves paying a lot up front to recover it years later.  Not a big issue – but a damn good reminder of the complexities of how technology changes even simple things like accounting.

Gaming has had over $5 billion in mergers and acquisitions globally.  Article six thousand and whatever in “gaming is a big thing” news.  But worth remembering.

Finally California is getting a bullet train and the complaining has begun.  Plus side, lots of job potentials for a long time . . .

– Steven “Amortizing Your Viewing Experience” Savage

Steve’s Update 10/20/2013

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Well the Seventh Sanctum beta has been checked over . . . and no one found any bugs.  I guess I expected some, but I’m glad nothing showed up.  So now I have to figure a launch time, probably sometime in November.  We’ll see if my “fast-cutover” technique works . .

I’m also using Bootstrap to develop a new site for my books, but more of that later.

Well, I’ll be bugging my beta readers this week to see if they’ve got any feedback on the next book.  So if you’re one of them prepare to be annoyed.  I hope to have an announcement in November as well, but . . . you know that by now.

I’ll be continuing my posts on reporting, and am quite enjoying it.  It’s a bit different beyond my usual writing.  I’ll probably make a presentation out of it.

Geared up for Con-volution in two weeks.  Going be there?  Let me know!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Geek As Citizen: To Advocate

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In my ongoing analysis of the role of a “geek as citizen”, I determined geeks were experts at knowing (indeed it’s instinct), driven to apply their knowledge (which is part of our enthusiasm), and thus good at experimenting (as in inclined). Indeed my term “Applied Geek” is a bit like Sahara Desert as all geeks to some case are about “application.”

We know, we use, and in a few cases we go crazy in a (possibly) productive way.

So really my take is that Geeks are a kind of “middleman/middlewoman” in a culture, mixing both academic and hands-on approaches together to get things done and to innovate. I’m not saying geeks are superior, I’m merely noting where they fit into the great scheme of civilization – and being a geek I’m all too aware of my limitations (like the faffing about, occasional obsessiveness, odd perspectives, etc.)

However, as I noted we are kind of “people in the middle” and that provides some further guidance on the social roles we can and indeed should take as geeks. We’ve got information coming in on all sides, we get our hands dirty, we kind of see and do a lot.

Sure we may not be as “face to face” on some things, or as academic, or our hands may not be as dirty as some (which is a terrible metaphor but you get the idea). We may also be limited by our own obsessions to being “in the middle” of a pretty limited area of expertise. But in the middle we are.

That leads to one of our important roles, as advocates and evangelizers for important causes and information. It may be the value of education, or knowing a given programming language, or climate change, or Applied Geek careers like yours truly. But because we’re in the middle of so much, we can in turn advocate for what is important.

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